GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



and very tough ; chickens infinitely more bony 

 than their Irish cousins, as they take such a 

 great deal of exercise in search of their daily food, 

 and eat all sorts of horrid refuse, that their 

 legs become long and full of muscle, like a race 

 horse's ! 



Cooking vegetables, except in tins, are almost an 

 impossibility. One is wise to make use of the 

 native vegetables, what few there are, in their dif- 

 ferent seasons. There is one like spinach, called 

 mchicha. It is quite common, almost a weed, but 

 quite nice ; but it was long before I could induce 

 my Nairobi boy to buy it, as he had been spoilt by 

 the lovely English vegetables in Nairobi, and could 

 not believe that I would willingly have eaten grass, 

 if I could have made it into a decent vegetable 

 with sauce over it. In July and August there are 

 mbaazi — a baazi is a sort of a pea growing on a 

 small tree somewhat resembling laburnum, and 

 generally growing up intermixed with the manioc. 

 Egg fruits, pumpkins, poor tomatoes and cucumbers 

 can usually be had, rather dear — but one gets very 

 tired of them ; expensive tough and dried-up lettuces 

 for salad too. Best of all the salads is the cocoa- 

 nut salad, a most extravagant dish, as for it a whole 

 cocoanut tree must be cut down, costing about ten 

 shillings. I believe one cocoanut tree brings in ten 

 shillings a year. Just the centre of the top of the 

 stem under the leaves is used for the salad and is 



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